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Rainy second practice session in Belgium
By BMW Sauber F1 Team September 5 2008
Difficult weather conditions in the second free practice session hampered the BMW Sauber F1 Team's preparation programme for the Belgian Grand Prix. For more than 30 minutes Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica remained in the pits, waiting for the track to dry out.

Before a rain shower hit the "Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps", Nick and Robert had both completed two five-lap stints. Nick set a personal best time of 1:49.755 minutes, while Robert was 0.140 seconds slower than his team-mate. Then, most of the drivers decided to stay in the pits during the downpour in the Ardennes.

Race fans witnessed only sporadic on-track action - but were "entertained" by several off-track moments. Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen lost his rear wing when crashing into the barriers, while Giancarlo Fisichella damaged his Force India car in the same section, causing a red flag situation.

When the session was re-started with some 20 minutes remaining, both BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers went out for two further runs before the rain increased in intensity. Nick improved his personal best time to 1:49.725 minutes, finishing tenth in the classification. Robert ended the day 11th on the timesheets. Renault's Fernando Alonso was the quickest man of the session, setting a 1:48.454-minute lap.

The BMW Sauber F1 Team engineers will now analyse the collected data and work out further improvements for the third practice session in Spa-Francorchamps, which will start on Saturday at 11:00hrs.

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